Newsletters

Christmas Newsletter 2006

Contents

• Introduction
• Family updates
• Sherpa boys updates
• Smriti Lama
• Sherpa family news
• Could we have peace at last?
• Winter holidays
• The Responsible Travellers

Dear Sponsors & Supporters

We are delighted to be sending you Christmas News from Kathmandu. Thus is our first newsletter since Tina moved to live in Nepal more permanently. We hope that Tina's relocation will help CHANCE achieve more and integrate further with the charity and NGO structure in Nepal.

In this letter we have focussed on news of our families and the children's progress in school following completion of their 2 nd term for the current school year.

In addition there is a quick update on the political situation which allows us to be cautiously optimistic about the future for a peaceful democracy here in Nepal.

Coming soon are the winter holidays when we will again run a CHANCE family day for all our families and associates to enjoy. We look forward to bringing you news about this event as well as the teacher training programme in the next issue.

We hope you enjoy reading the news and if you have any comments please feel free to contact us, we would love to hear from you.

We hope you enjoy the Christmas Festivities.

Best regards,

The CHANCE Management Team

P.S. We currently have a large stock of Nepali Goods: Pashmina shawls & Scarves, Jewellery & Bags All these products are bought on a fair trade basis – providing income to needy third world families, and are sold at fair prices to the supporters of CHANCE. If you are interested to buy Christmas presents or think you could run a house party please call Cheryl on 01889 500653

Winter / Spring 2006-07 Key Dates

CHANCE Dates

• Jan 5th - Family picnic in KTM
• April 5th – School admissions

Key National Festivals/Dates

• February 17th – Lhosar: Tibetan new year celebrated by Buddhist communities
• Full moon in March - Holi Festival: inspired by Krishna, a fun festival of colours, face painting and water fights

Family updates

Sange & Urgen moved to live in a monastery ... Sange and Urgen came to visit us before their exams were finished, so we will bring you news of the academic studies once the results have been published. They are both very well and healthy. Urgen has received a present from her sponsor family – a game involving patience and balance which they have learnt how to play with great delight. We also had some dominoes for Sange a great game to get him using numbers and teach him some exercises as well as having have lots of fun. Their father is now caretaking at a local monastery, So the family have moved out of the room they were living and have a room in the monastic buildings. This is much cleaner and warmer for them. They therefore benefit from not having to pay rent and so can provide better food and clothing for the children. Urgen and Sange both seem to be benefiting – they are growing up and look a picture of health. They are currently doing their exams so we wish them luck and will let you know how they get on

Lhakpa Doma Sherpa – a strong and confident young girl This sherpa family live on the main ring road of Kathmandu near Boudha Stupa. Ama (mum) runs a small local tea shop in the front room which opens onto the pavement and they sleep in the back room. This season Sera (father) has worked on 3 short treks as an assistant. Their home is dark and dull yet the ambience is bright and full of smiles. They have the true Sherpa nature - full of fun and happiness. Lhakpa is bold and confident gaining a distinction in her exams with 84% coming one place below Aditya Moktan another of our children. She told us about her best friend in school Yatri – whose name has the meaning Journey. Interestingly she is teaching her younger sister Lamu who already says the alphabet and some numbers. Another bundle of fun and full of character we expect she will shine in class as a result of her sisters early tutoring. Sera watches his daughters with a mixture of pride and admiration. They already have literacy skills in both Nepali and English beyond his own and this fills him with a sense of gratitude to be conveyed to Brenda & Cheryl Lhakpa's sponsors.

Sherpa boys updates

Hindoo Chewang and Choo Gyaltsen Hindoo Chewang and Choo Gyaltsen are still studying at Mount Kailash School for children of the Himalaya. They have progressed significantly on a social and emotional level. They both are happy little boys and have grown up immensely since they arrived in Kathmandu. You can see by the photos they are healthy and strong. Unfortunately their academic performance is not as strong as some of the children despite being in a constantly monitored environment at a boarding school. Now that the children have transitioned fully to life at school in Kathmandu we are considering moving them from boarding to live with a sherpa family. The charity will continue to support their living but by integrating into a family from the same region; the boys will have a more “normal” existence rather than the sheltered life of boarding school. Along with their academic studies this experience should help make them well rounded individuals and prepare them for their life ahead. This type of change will take time to plan and execute to ensure the best possible impact for both the boys and the host family. We will keep you updated along the way.

Aditya & Anjan Moktan The Moktan family are still living in their room – a 10 foot square space for the two boys and their mother. Unfortunately their room is above a communal toilet which serves the families in four different rooms. Sanu, the boys mother now has a permanent position as a cleaner working for an AIDs organisation called Prerna. This provides a more certain and regular income than ad-hoc cleaning jobs she did previously. Although they have poor living conditions, Aditya, now 6 years old is growing up rapidly and studying well in Upper Kinder Garden (UKG). He is a quiet and shy boy, but is capable and eager to please. This term he attained a distinction with 86%. By contrast, his elder brother Anjan is struggling in class 4. He started school later in life and so is finding it hard to catch up. This supports our philosophy to start the children young in nursery. As he failed in two key subjects – Nepali language and English language Anjan unfortunately failed the term exam overall. This is despite his attendance in additional classes after school. When we visited the family on a Saturday he was taking a well earned break playing football, and arrived home looking fresh and with a huge smile. He is a good boy who needs some additional help to achieve academically.

Smriti Lama – encouraging news for the family

In the rural outskirts of Kathmandu in a village called Addeswor Smriti lives with her mother Roshini and uncle – Ramesh. They live in a brick & mud room similar to the Moktans in the garden of a large house. The community share a vegetable plot and toilet facilities. Ramesh rents a room separately, and pays to keep his sister and niece.

Smriti is getting more confidence and benefiting from the social aspect of school. She is also achieving academically attaining 3 rd position in her class with distinction. She enjoys writing and proudly spelt out words as she showed off her skills to us! After drinking a cup of Nepali Chai with us she brightly proclaimed “I am finishing first!”. When she started to be supported she was retiring and introverted with little self esteem. It is good to see her positive development.

During our family visit we discussed the opportunities for Roshini to get work. She has the opportunity to go for house keeping training at an agency to then be placed in a hotel for work. To get started on the ladder she needs to pay for her training. In accordance with our philosophy to help those wanting to help themselves, we have agreed to loan her the money if the agency will guarantee employment. A payback schedule can then be agreed. Roshini is going to investigate further with the agency now she has our support.

Uncle taking initiative to raise funds for CHANCE ... In addition, we talked of opportunities for her Uncle Ramesh to help support fund raising. Although uneducated, he is a talented athlete – mountain biking and running. His income is gained from guiding bike trips and from racing. His winnings may be as much as £150 a year which helps him to support the family. He also rides a unicycle with great skill and precision – sometimes even riding mountain bike routes!

He has suggested running the Everest Marathon as a sponsored event in aid of CHANCE. A gruelling race from Everest Base Camp to Namche Bazaar – the sherpa capital which happens in early November. Watch out soon to be featured on the website to gain sponsorship to raise funds for CHANCE.

Sherpa Family News

Our 3rd Sherpa family is home to Choyti and Nangpuri – who was originally named Pasang – after the day of the week he was born. Now he has been given a forename Nangpuri, and so is known as Nangpuri Pasang Sherpa. Their younger baby brother has been named Ngima – after his birth day Sunday. It is expected his naming will follow a similar pattern to his brother.

Choyti has for the second term this year attained 1st position in her class. This is excellent news as a 7 year old she is 2 school years behind in her studies. With a consistent high position she will be promoted a year in April to jump a class and so will then study with Aditya and Lhakpa Doma. This is something she is very proud of and is most pleased with herself!

Nangpuri, at 4 years old is in Nursery and he also gained 1st place in his class. He is a little more shy than his sister, and most likely benefiting from her tuition!

The academic accolade of two first positions is a huge success story for this family.

They live in a quiet back street with a similar set up to our other Sherpa family. Ama runs a tea shop and Papa Pemba works in the mountains. However, this Sherpa family are not managing so well. The teashop is not located in a good position for trade, but is a quiet place for them to live with 3 young children. The one room has a curtain to separate living from sleeping quarters with the whole family managing to live in the same room that doubles as a local teashop. Equally, Apa is not getting much work with only one trek this last season. He was employed by a French trekking company. However, the company suffered from a fatal disaster in the Annapurnas loosing 7 members and clients. Since then, they have not had much work. Getting introductions to new companies is very competitive and hard to achieve.

We have therefore discussed some help for The Responsible Travellers (the travel company for whom CHANCE is a beneficiary) to sponsor Pemba to attend English language and mountain waste management course in Kathmandu with a reputed Charity KEEP (Kathmandu environmental Education Project). Following this he will have certificates of his qualification to help sell himself. In addition, whenever possible The Responsible Travellers will hire him to support our treks.

Sanju Rai

Sanju, a deserted girl has been unofficially adopted by our field officer Kedar. He has taken her in providing a home and good food for this young 9 year girl. He has an only son, and says by adopting Sanju he now has a daughter.

Sanju is struggling with her studies, again failing this terms exams. She has made a marginal improvement in her percentage mark, but needs to make significant progress if she is to pass the year. It may be possible that for Sanju, the reality is that she may need to repeat the year. She is studying on a par with other 9 year olds who started basic schooling much younger.

In the meantime, she will be attending additional classes next term to help her progress. We shall wait to see what impact this personal tuition has before making any decisions.

We are thankful to Kedar that she has a good family home and will be well looked after.

Rajen Rai

Rajen started with us in April. He comes from a broken home – his mother is the first of 3 wives that his father has taken. His father is in the army and with help from Kedar, his father's superior officer ensures that some maintenance is paid to the family. They receive approximately 1000NRS a month which pays for their room rent.

Now that Rajen is attending school, his mother has got work at a furniture makers painting and varnishing the wood. For this she earns about 120 NRS a day – less that a pound, which is the housekeeping money for food and clothes.

Rajen is quite independent and capable boy. Being brought up by his mother he can prepare himself tea, which is sometimes necessary if his mother is late from work. He is a quiet boy who seems equally happy with friends or in his own company.

In the second term his has improved from 15 th position to 12 th position in his class. Passing with a second division mark of 56% we hope Rajen will continue to improve. He is lucky to live close to Kedar and his family and so can now goes to their house to do his homework after school.

Magar Girls – a family struggling against the odds

We arrived to the Magar Family with Sunita playing outside. Grandmother was pleased to see us with news that Father was working on a building site and mother also had work packing spices. Still living with 2 rooms for the family and their grandparents, the place was damp and a little cold. It was sad to see that the girls are very under nourished and not physically developing as they should. They eat a basic rice and lentil meal – the national dish.

Mondira continues to be leading the way with distinction, claiming science as her favourite subject in which she attained 89%. When asked about others she simply said that she finds no subject too hard! Studying in a class 2 she is in fact 3 years behind her peer group. She started her education late in life, but is showing great application to her studies.

Her sister Indira, in only 1 year behind, studying in class 1. As a result she is struggling more with a second class mark. In contrast to her elder sister she has her hair very short and appears to be quite a tom boy.

Sunita studies with Choyti and Prabesh in LKG. As the youngest, she has the best opportunity to follow the school years and start at the beginning.

With such a strong family unit the 3 sisters support each other. We have to direct Mondira's enthusiasm not to help too much as to actually do the work for her younger sisters. They seem independent and strong minded. They are still missing more days than most at school. It seems if one child is sick they all stay off – something we need to educate the parents to avoid affecting their educational development. In addition, when there have been rumours of Maoists being nearby, the family have kept the children home in fear of kidnapping. Now that the peace deal has been achieved, we hope to have no more fears of school children being abducted.

Prabesh Gautam Sherpa

Prabesh is in LKG with Sunita and Choyti, however, when asked if they are friends he smiles cheekily and says – they are girls and his best friend is Narendra. He is again a bright young boy with a sociable character. Our field Officer Kedar has a guitar and Prabesh loves to visit his house & strum the strings. He also shone in his first term exam with a first division mark of 72%. His teacher believes this to be a great start and is encouraging him to strive for distinction.

His mother, a Sherpa, is working in another sherpa household as a maid and his father has recently lost his driving job. Luckily Prabesh receives hand me down clothes from Kedar's son Manish, and so they manage on the income they have.

Could we have peace at last?

Since the last time we wrote there has been some great progress on the political front in Nepal.

After requesting some mediation help from the UN in May, the Maoists and the government have in October signed a peace deal. This involves the Maoists giving up their arms under the administration of the UN and the Nepal national armed forces.

So what is happening? Cantonments – or temporary camps have been set up by the forces where the Maoists are registering and arms are being collected.

Once there is a level of satisfaction that a dis-arming has been achieved the country will have an election. We are already feeling an element of election fever with demonstrations and rallies being organised by all participating parties. No date has been set yet. This democratic process will allow the Maoists to work towards their political goals legitimately. However, there is not a great deal of public support for them as a party so only time will tell as to how many places they win in government.

Winter Holidays

The Nepali children have their longest holiday usually in winter – the reverse to our Summer holiday season in the UK. However, this year the usual 4 week holidays are cut short by most schools to 1-2 weeks due to the number of days that have been missed during the agitations. With the previous political situation, schools would close when there are Maoist strikes or demonstrations close by.

This winter we shall have a CHANCE family day which will incorporate games, competitions, prizes and a picnic. This is an opportunity for all our children to play together and the CHANCE community to celebrate the year's achievements. We will bring you news and pictures of the event in the next newsletter.

Fund Raising Thanks in 2006

Ludlow Ladies Lunch – Hat Show & Sale

Many thanks to Barbara Handy & friends Brenda & Julia for organising and catering for the Ludlow Ladies Lunch. This was a thoroughly enjoyable event which took over £1000. We hope to see you all again next year.

Uttoxeter Inner Wheel – Sale of Nepali Products

Thanks to our hostess Fiona Kerby and Inner Wheel Ladies. We managed to raise over £1200. This was the most successful fund raising sale we have had so far. Many thanks to all attending for your support.

The Responsible Travellers Live Online!

We are now a recipient of funds generated by a non commercial organisation called The Responsible Travellers. If you fancy a trip to the Himalayan Kingdom, why not take a look at the holidays on offer. Great prices and all profits are donated to causes such as CHANCE: www.theresponsibletravellers.com

If you have been inspired or have any bright ideas for fund raising please contact Cheryl: 01889 500 653.